European Transport Coordinator will bring Fehmarn funding into new budget

04-10-2017Infrastructure

Danish, Swedish and German politicians signed a joint declaration on the importance of the Fehmarn Connection in Brussels. As an added bonus, there was news of financial support from the European Coordinator.

Danish, Swedish and German politicians signed a joint
declaration on the importance of the Fehmarn Connection in
Brussels. Added bonus was positive news of financial support from
the European Coordinator.

Coordinator of the Scandinavian-Mediterranean Transport
Corridor, Pat Cox, was repeatedly applauded by the
audience at the European Parliament while participating in the
panel discussion on September 26 during the European launch of the
Friend of Fehmarnbelt initiative in Brussels.

He had a number of clear messages with him from his homeland,
Ireland:

- Let there be no doubt: The Fehmarn Connection is, and will
continue to be, a European top priority, he said.

Pat Cox had forgotten his glasses and had to make do with
sunglasses in the not overly bright committee room in the European
Parliament.

To local radio station, P4 Zealand, who had found their way to
Brussels, Pat Cox added that the EU support, just over 4.4 billion
Danish Crownes (money, the Fehmarn Construction has already been
allocated) are not necessarily lost because they are not used in
the current budget period due to delays.

- We will try to negotiate to keep the money in the purse and
thus be able to use them when the time comes, he explained to P4 Zealand.

The normal practice for funding allocated by the European
Commission for such projects is for them to be used for the
duration of the budget until 2020. In 2015, 4.4 billion Danish
Crowns were allocated for the construction of the tunnel between
2016 and 2019. Today, Fehmarn A / S does not expect construction to
start before 2020.

It was thus a happy and content Schleswig-Holstein Transport
Minister, Bernd Buchholz, who listened to Pat Cox. He has to deal
with the concerns of the population and environmental organizations
as revealed by public consultations on the project.

- This is an enormously important statement for both the German
and Danish sides, was his response.

A focus on the
positive

The resigning chairman of STRING cooperation, Steen Bach
Nielsen, is of the same opinion.

- As I heard Pat Cox today, he gave the impression that we could
most likely hold on to what we have already been promised, Bach
Nielsen stated to radio P4 Zealand.

The initiative Friends of Fehmarnbelt, which was the starting
point of the event in Brussels, has just been initiated by Steen
Bach Nielsen who wants to shift focus from the negative stories of
delays to the positive stories of growth, jobs, shorter travel
times and less CO2- emissions.

- We have sent a strong signal to the European Parliament, the
European Commission and the member states today emphasizing the
importance of the Fehmarnbelt Fixed Link. This historically large
infrastructure project will increase growth, create jobs, reduce
CO2-emissions and remove a priority bottleneck in the TEN-T
corridor. Together we will do everything we can to help the process
forward as smoothly and quickly as possible, Steen Bach Nielsen
explained.

From left MEPs Jeppe Kofod, Knut Fleckenstein and
STRING Chairman Steen Bach Nielsen signing joint declaration on
importance of the Fehmarnbelt Fixed Link at the European Parliament
on September 26.
Photo: EU Parliament.

Hard negotiations ahead

The hosts of the event were four members of the European
Parliament from Sweden, Denmark and Germany. From the Danish side,
Jeppe Kofod was pleased that Brussels was once again reminded of
what

- enormous benefits this infrastructure project has for the
citizens, for business, jobseekers, the environment and for growth
in general on both sides of the tunnel.

- In Brussels, we are starting work on the next multiannual
framework budget. I will on my part fight to make the European
Commission and the member states aware that grants for cross-border
infrastructure projects should continue to be a priority part of
the upcoming EU budget, he said.

Jeppe Kofod's German colleague Knut Fleckenstein agreed.

- There is no doubt that the forthcoming budget negotiations
will be tough. It is therefore extremely important that we tell our
national governments and the European Commission - and remind even
ourselves - that EU funding should be retained for projects such as
the Fehmarnbelt tunnel,

Fleckenstein said, and added during the debate that the
Transport Committee in the European Parliament, that he himself is
more than convinced and that the task now is to convince the budget
committee.

During the event, Steen Bach Nielsen and the host MEPs signed a
joint declaration that the Fehmarnbelt link is an important part of
the Scandinavian-Mediterranean Corridor, and thus is crucial for
achieving the EU's goals of growth and sustainable transport. The
declaration is to be sent to a number of senior European
politicians.

STRING is a political cross-border partnership between Akershus County and Østfold County in Norway, Region Halland, Region Västra Götaland, Region Skåne and the City of Malmö in Sweden, the City of Copenhagen, the Capital Region of Denmark and Region Zealand in Denmark, Schleswig-Holstein and the City of Hamburg and in Germany.